So I’m not much of a RPG developer or writer (sans a few forthcoming credits in non-Autarch OSR products) but I have been stewing over some ideas for a campaign package/PDF/whatever that utilizes materials included in ACKS and DaW. The shame of DaW currently is that there isn’t any prepared scenarios on the macro-level.
Here is what I am imagining:
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Map of the campaign world is the ‘outdoor survival’-based hex map from the DaW KS.
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The PCs are mid-level citizens of a Lawful kingdom comprising of some part of the campaign world. Depending on class, they have different roles in the Kingdom but at the very least Fighters will represent members of the military structure of the kingdom. Not sure about pre-gens, but the PC should be levels 5 to 8 or so.
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The campaign has a driving force in the form of war. In direct threat, there is a large chaotic domain (perhaps ruled over by a reasonably high level ruinguard). There might also be smaller polities on the map, that may be opportunities for diplomatic missions to form alliances against a common foe. A competing neutral kingdom for instance, that may work with the Lawful kingdom under the right circumstances or throw in with the ‘dark forces’.
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The campaign would follow a routine based on the seasons of a year. During the Spring and Summer, it is military campaign season. The PCs will be given command over some of the Lawful Kingdom’s military (either as premier leaders or as subordinates) and move their armies utilizing the DaW Campaigns rules and then using the Battles rules for pitched battles against the Chaotic armies. While the armies prepare for winter during the Autumn and Winter months, this gives the PCs opportunities to go dungeon delving, with the actual purpose of finding artifacts that would help the war effort. These relics may be holy treasures that will provide morale bonuses in pitched combat, or magical weapons, etc. The purpose is to give them larger reasons for hitting up dungeons, to help the overall effort to ‘save the land’.
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Dungeon delving may lead the PCs into conflict with important Chaotic commanders, who are also searching for artifacts. Killing those guys in the dungeon may mean the armies won’t have good leaders. Everything is treated as a sandbox, minimal railroading.
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Ultimately the campaign would end either in Lawful victory or defeat. Principally the leader of the Chaotic forces would need to die, either in a heroic foray during an epic army battle or during a targeted infiltration of his home-base in a late-campaign dungeon delve. Also, if the Chaotic armies are able to hold morale, they may also need to be routed at the macro-level for the campaign to truly end (or continue if that’s what the gaming group wants).
The problem with something like this is that it would be a lot of work to put together. Obviously number crunching for settlements and armies would need to be done, not to mention creating and filling dungeons. I would take awhile trying to put it together if I actually tried. But this is maybe something that the community can create open-source as well, for those also interested. Just spitballing.
Thoughts?